Masked HERO Celestia
by StevenBleumer
Summary: People across Japan have been mysteriously disappearing, with no trace of their whereabouts. The only common link among them is that they have been playing the latest MMORPG, "Terminal Wars Online". Maki Hoshikawa, an ordinary school girl, receives a Terminal Phone one evening. Using it, she becomes Masked HERO Celestia and uncovers the truth behind the cases.
1. PROLOGUE: Raid of the Inverz

May 2010. It was almost midnight.

Alone in his room, a young man was sitting on his single-sized bed as he was busily typing and clicking on his glistening silver laptop. Apparently, he was doing something so important for school – high school – that he had to stay up this late in the evening facing a machine that practically served as the only light source in his rather dimly-lit room.

Only, there was a glowing green stick – a high-speed Wi-Fi modem – attached to the right side of his laptop, and such a highly-powerful device isn't necessary for something as light as an essay paper in the first two months of a school term. This being especially true for the city, which has gaming-class Wi-Fi signals installed in the public.

It wasn't a school project or anything at all that he was doing in the first place.

It was the freshly-released multiplayer online role-playing game, or MORPG.

It was _**Terminal Wars Online**_.

With determined eyes staring at the screen – particularly at the on-screen swarm of insectoid enemies (the Inverz, as they are called in the promotional posters scattered all over Japan) – the teen was furiously clicking his mouse, directing his on-screen avatar (a holy paladin) to attack the Inverz rush. His three online teammates (a priestess, an archer, and a warrior) were tightly clustered near him to provide each other support. _Thank you, guys,_ he thought as he continued playing intently—

The laptop screen's colors reversed – black to white and white to black, with the other colors doing the same. _What the heck! Certainly, this isn't part of the gameplay?_ Promptly, the screen display dissolved into grainy grey static.

The young man budged his computer, hoping the static would go away. _Dammit, I didn't scrimp on my daily allowance for this crap—_

A glistening black insect-like claw shot out from the screen and grabbed the stunned gamer by the neck. _"Help… me…"_ he barely muttered as he grabbed onto this strange appendage, hoping to free himself to no avail as the latter tightened its grasp.

The insect arm – and the gamer – shot into the laptop's static screen, and in that same instant, _**Terminal Wars Online**_ resumed running, with the words GAME OVER, in black and purple, in prominent display.


	2. 01: Message from the Chairperson

It was Monday morning the following day.

All the students of Kirameki Private High School – or at least _those_ who are present – were gathered and seated in neat rows in the school auditorium that morning. That day, four seats from Section 2-B (class B of second-year students) were conspicuously unoccupied, becoming the new additions to the missing students in this year's student list.

On the stage, a female student with straight red hair walked towards the podium, and after bowing to her schoolmates, began speaking with a mix of sternness and concern.

"Good morning, my dear fellow students," she started. "I am Yu Satsuki, the current head of the Student Council, and I am here to deliver you an important message."

"It has come to the school officials' attention that some of our students have been mysteriously vanishing every day for the past five days, and none of us apparently has any knowledge of the cause for these disappearances. This is a major cause of alarm for all of us, especially since national news have also been reporting disappearances in other places in the country."

Murmurs were heard among the student audience.

Yu raised her open right hand, and immediately, the murmurs silenced.

"Now, my dear students, I know you are all afraid. The school officials are all also afraid. Even I myself am also afraid. That's why I'm telling you in this gathering: Until the cause of these disappearances has been found, the best we all could do is be more careful and stay together in public whenever possible. Thank you very much, and good morning."

Yu Satsuki bowed once more, and then, she walked away from the podium and off the stage.

No one clapped. It was complete silence for the entire school.


	3. 02: After School

It was late afternoon. With the exception of members of certain school clubs, all the students were leaving the school. As per the student council head's announcement that morning, the leaving students grouped themselves into at least a pair.

Red-haired Maki Hoshikawa and glasses-wearing Tsugumi Godo – both best friends with each other – were among these home-going pairs.

"So, Maki?" asked the glasses girl. "Are you heading home already?"

"Yes," answered the redhead girl. "I still have to work on that English essay tonight. Why, Tsugumi-chan?"

"I… I'm just concerned about you, Maki." Tsugumi reached into her school backpack and produced her green smartphone. The relative lack of swiped prints on the screen meant it was fairly new, at about two weeks since purchase or receipt. (More likely the former, as she hadn't had any suitors.)

Tsugumi opened a local newspaper's website. "It bothers me, Maki," she said as she scrolled down on the news report regarding the latest disappearance. [ **FOUR GAMERS MISSING:** _ **Terminal Wars Online**_ **a culprit?** ] "I _hate_ this _stupid_ news agency making a big sensation out of almost everything! Last time, they made that stalking victim the one to blame for her death! Now, seriously, _this?_ "

"Ah, Tsugumi…" Maki waves her both hands at her friend, ushering her to cool down. "As much as I hate their reporting, all we could say is 'it can't be helped', sadly." She continued walking normally. "And about the missing people, have you noticed from the stories that the victims all disappeared _indoors_?"

"Um, yes, Maki, I have noticed." Tsugumi palmed her face just close enough to not hit her glasses. "I cannot say it's the game's fault, though, even though I _hate_ slackers who choose video games over books."

Maki shrugged. "I have no idea. No one has an idea. Those that do are the missing ones."

The two continued walking away from the Kirameki school grounds, towards home.


End file.
